Vital research into the UK’s conference and meetings sector is launched today. The 2018 ‘UK Conference and Meeting Survey’ (UKCAMS), now in its 25th consecutive year, has a specific focus on the value and volume of the market and the performance of meeting venues. It also highlights key market trends identified by venues.
The results provide a definitive insight into the conference and meetings sector and are widely used to inform investment, advocacy and marketing activities.
The survey asks UK venues to provide data on their conference and meeting business during the calendar year 2017. It includes questions on the number of events hosted, rates achieved, event duration and size, client type, levels of residential and non-residential business, origin of business, investment plans, and overall business performance in 2017 together with their projections for business in 2018.
UKCAMS 2018 includes, for the first time, a new section on the targeting and securing of international events by UK venues.
All UK conference and meeting venues are being encouraged to participate in the UKCAMS research. Those venues completing the questionnaire will receive a complimentary, personalised report enabling them to benchmark their performance against other comparable venues. The online questionnaire can be accessed at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UKCAMS-2018
The research is being carried out by Tony Rogers of Tony Rogers Conference & Event Services and Richard Smith of RJS Associates. Tony has been involved with the research since its inception in 1993 and Richard since 2004.
VisitBritain is the principal sponsor of UKCAMS 2018. Other sponsors include: IMEX Group, venuedirectory.com, Visit Guildford for Business, Hiscox Event Insurance and Glasgow Convention Bureau.
Tony Rogers says that the UKCAMS research has a proven track record as a source of reliable and robust information and market intelligence. It helps venues and destinations, as well as other industry stakeholders, to understand the latest and emerging trends in order to target their marketing and investment decisions to greatest effect. UKCAMS also plays a key role in highlighting the significance and value of the conference and meetings sector to the national economy.
Kerrin MacPhie, Head of Business Events at VisitBritain, comments that VisitBritain is pleased to be supporting this research which will help with understanding the current level of activity by UK venues. It is good to see, this year, a focus on how venues are interacting with the international market.
Further details of the research are available on the dedicated website: http://www.ukcams.org.uk
Tony Rogers is a consultant specialising in conferences, business events (MICE), and destination & venue marketing/management. Until August 2009 he worked as Project Director for Eventia (now EVCOM),the industry trade association, and prior to this he spent 19½ years as Chief Executive of the British Association of Conference Destinations (BACD). In 2011 he was named in the MIA-List of the 25 people who “demonstrate the very essence of passion & creativity in the meetings & events sector”.
Tony is also an honorary member of the Association of British Professional Conference Organisers (ABPCO), an association he managed for 8 years; a Visiting Fellow at Leeds Beckett University for 8 years until 2015; and an author of several books on the international conference industry including ‘Marketing Destinations and Venues for Conferences, Conventions and Business Events’ (written jointly with Rob Davidson – a second edition will be published by Routledge in 2015) and ‘Conferences and Conventions: A Global Industry’ – both have been translated into Chinese (the latter was also translated into Portuguese in 2011). A new third edition of ‘Conferences and Conventions’ was published by Routledge in 2013 – a Chinese translation was published in 2015.
Tony is a regular speaker at conferences and events in the UK, and at a number of UK universities and colleges. He has also presented at conferences in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, The Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea and Spain.
In 1999 Tony won Meeting & Incentive Travel’s ‘Personality of the Year’ award and, in 2007, he achieved 9th position in Conference & Incentive Travel’s ‘Power 50’ listing of the top 50 people who contributed significantly to the development of the industry in the previous 12 months.
Before joining BACD in 1989, Tony held positions as: a careers adviser; and a business economist in a local authority economic development dept.
